Gangster Films

For more than 35 years the mobsters behind one of the largest cash thefts in US history – a heist so brazen it was used as one of the central themes of the film Goodfellas — seemed to have got clean away.

Carl Williams was so nearly in the right place at the right time in both his fights for the heavyweight championship of the world. "The Truth", as people who knew him liked to call him, lost on points over the ancient distance of 15 rounds to Larry Holmes in 1985. The ringside experts and fans in Reno that night overwhelmingly believed Holmes had lost for the first time in 48 fights, but the judges denied Williams. Holmes lost for the first time in his next fight.

So, you like cowboys and you're mad for the Mafia. Why take two bottles into the shower, though? Get Vegas, the wash'n'go solution to all your cowboy/mobster needs – a crime drama that, as its creator, Nicholas Pileggi, puts it in the elevator pitch, might reasonably be summarised as "John Wayne versus Edward G Robinson".

My father and I shared a love of film His mother was an usherette in a cinema, and he'd watch every movie twice a week for free. I discovered the afternoon black-and-white films on TV, such as [1948 crime drama] Key Largo, at a young age. It was a very formative experience as [these films] absorb into your consciousness.